CPFR intelligence, built on Essential.
Trace helps manufacturers, retailers, distributors and commercial teams coordinate demand, stock, forecast, replenishment and execution from one AI-powered operating layer.
Built on Essential, Trace connects sell-in, sell-out, inventory, prices, forecasts, replenishment rules, commercial targets, alerts and AI agents into a shared operational model. It gives teams the visibility, predictions and next actions they need to plan better and execute faster.
The most important commercial decisions still live in meetings, spreadsheets and messages.
In large commercial operations, CPFR teams align sales, demand planning, trade marketing, supply chain, retail partners and distributors. But the work is fragmented across ERP exports, sell-out files, inventory reports, WhatsApp groups, Excel models, BI dashboards and weekly meetings. Teams react late, forecasts drift from reality, inventory risks go unnoticed, retail opportunities are missed, and replenishment depends on manual coordination.
Commercial teams rarely see demand, sales, inventory and replenishment in one connected model.
Availability issues are discovered after the opportunity is already lost.
Forecasts are built, adjusted and debated across disconnected spreadsheets.
Manufacturers, distributors and retailers plan from different versions of the truth.
The same decisions are repeated every cycle without capturing what worked, what failed and why.
Trace turns the CPFR role into a product.
Trace captures the work of a CPFR team and turns it into a system: monitoring demand, detecting inventory risks, forecasting needs, recommending replenishment, coordinating actions and learning from execution.
Tracks sell-in, sell-out, demand signals, velocity, seasonality and anomalies across products, customers, channels and territories.
Monitors stock availability, days of inventory, low-stock risk, overstock, product rotation and replenishment urgency.
Uses historical sales, real-time signals, business rules and AI models to project future demand and highlight forecast deviations.
Suggests what to replenish, where, when and why — based on demand, inventory, lead times, service levels and commercial priorities.
Gives sales, supply chain, retailers, distributors and key account teams a shared view of the operation and the decisions required.
Agents monitor signals, explain risks, recommend actions, generate summaries and help teams prepare planning conversations.
Trace is not a dashboard. It is CPFR modeled through Essential.
Essential gives Trace the operational ontology needed to understand how demand, inventory, forecast and replenishment actually work.
Essential is Quarks' ontology layer. In Trace, it connects products, customers, retailers, distributors, warehouses, stores, routes, inventory positions, purchase orders, sales history, forecasts, service levels, lead times, business rules and commercial priorities into one operational foundation. This is what allows Trace to move beyond reporting — it understands the entities, relationships, rules and actions behind the CPFR process.
What a CPFR manager does manually, Trace turns into a repeatable intelligence workflow.
A CPFR command center for modern operators.
See demand before it becomes a problem.
Trace tracks sell-in, sell-out, velocity, changes in demand, anomalies and customer-level performance.
Trace agents monitor the operation and prepare the next decision.
Trace agents are not generic chatbots. They are connected to Essential, which gives them context about products, customers, inventory, demand, forecasts, rules and permissions.
Monitors demand changes, anomalies, velocity shifts and forecast deviations.
Detects stockouts, overstock, low coverage and rotation risks.
Recommends replenishment priorities by product, customer, store, warehouse or region.
Prepares customer-specific planning views, risks, opportunities and meeting summaries.
Summarizes what changed, what matters and what decisions are required.
Flags issues that require human attention and routes them to the right owner.
Built for the operators who coordinate demand and supply at scale.
Track product demand, pharmacy availability, therapeutic categories, stock risks and commercial execution across chains, distributors and regions.
Coordinate sell-out, inventory, promotions, replenishment and category performance across retailers and distributors.
Improve replenishment, reduce stockouts, control inventory exposure and align suppliers around real demand.
Detect demand patterns, optimize replenishment, manage coverage and coordinate with manufacturers and sales teams.
Prepare account-level planning conversations with visibility into demand, stock, service levels, risks and opportunities.
Connect pricing, demand, promotions, stock availability and execution into one intelligence layer.
A shared intelligence layer for manufacturers, retailers and distributors.
Imagine a manufacturer coordinating with a major retailer and distribution network. Sales is looking at targets. Supply chain is looking at inventory. The retailer is looking at shelves. Finance is looking at working capital. Everyone needs the same answer: what is happening, what is coming, and what should we do next? Trace gives them a shared model.
Companies such as Abbott, Walmart, Mondelez or Kimberly-Clark are referenced only as archetypes of the kind of operator Trace is designed for.
- 01Data enters Trace
ERP, POS sell-out, inventory, orders, retailer files, distributor reports, promotions and external signals.
- 02Essential structures the operation
Products, customers, locations, stock positions, demand patterns, replenishment rules, service levels and permissions.
- 03Trace detects what matters
Demand acceleration, stockout risk, forecast drift, overstock, slow movers, customer-level opportunities.
- 04Agents recommend actions
Replenish, adjust forecast, escalate risk, prepare customer meeting, review promotion, rebalance inventory.
- 05Teams coordinate execution
Sales, supply chain, key account and retail partners work from the same operational truth.
From reactive reporting to coordinated execution.
Identify availability risks earlier and coordinate replenishment before revenue is lost.
Compare planning assumptions against real demand and update forecast with operational context.
Detect slow movers, excess coverage and inventory imbalances before they become working capital problems.
Replace manual report preparation with AI-generated summaries, risks and recommended decisions.
Create one shared view of demand, inventory, replenishment and execution priorities.
Turn decisions, actions and outcomes into reusable intelligence for future cycles.
Trace connects the entities that matter in CPFR.
Trace works because Essential models how these entities relate. This gives AI agents the operational context required to explain what happened, forecast what may happen next, and recommend what should be done.
Start with one planning loop. Scale into the operating system.
Trace can begin with a focused CPFR workflow and expand over time. Quarks maps the operation, connects the sources, configures Essential, defines business rules and deploys Trace around the decisions the team needs to make every week.
We define the products, customers, channels, sources, planning cycle and decision owners.
We ingest ERP, POS, inventory, distributor, retailer, CRM, pricing and external data sources.
We model products, customers, inventory, demand, forecast, replenishment rules, permissions and AI context.
We launch dashboards, alerts, workflows, agents and planning views for the operating teams.
Trace can start with one category, one retailer, one distributor network or one region — then scale.
Built for sensitive commercial and operational data.
Trace is designed for enterprise environments where data access, permissions, auditability and governance matter. Essential helps define who can see what, which metrics are trusted, how rules are applied and how AI agents access context safely.
Questions
What is Trace?+
Trace is Quarks' CPFR Intelligence product. It helps teams coordinate demand, inventory, forecasting, replenishment and execution through one operating layer built on Essential.
Is Trace a dashboard?+
No. Trace includes dashboards, but it is not just reporting. Trace models the CPFR operation through Essential and adds alerts, workflows, recommendations and AI agents.
What does CPFR mean?+
Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment — the process of coordinating demand, forecast, inventory and replenishment between manufacturers, retailers, distributors and internal teams.
Who is Trace for?+
Pharmaceutical labs, CPG companies, retailers, distributors, wholesalers, key account teams, demand planners, supply chain teams and commercial operations teams.
How does Trace use Essential?+
Essential models the operational entities and relationships behind CPFR: products, customers, inventory, demand, forecasts, replenishment rules, service levels, permissions and AI context. Trace uses that model to generate visibility, alerts, recommendations and coordinated actions.
Can Trace work with existing systems?+
Yes. Trace connects to existing ERP, POS, inventory, retailer, distributor, CRM, pricing and external data sources.
Can Trace start with one category or customer?+
Yes. Trace can begin with one category, one retailer, one distributor, one region or one planning workflow, then scale over time.
Turn CPFR into decision infrastructure.
Trace helps manufacturers, retailers, distributors and commercial teams coordinate demand, inventory, forecasting, replenishment and execution through one AI-powered operating layer built on Essential.
Talk to a partner.
Every Quarks engagement starts with a conversation with a senior partner. No forms. No bots. No SDR routing.